Michael Gleeson and Larissa Nicholson

Richmond were not attempting to make a mockery of the pre-season competition but were trying to safeguard their regular season when the NAB Challenge match dissolved into farce and infuriated Port Adelaide, football manager Dan Richardson said.

Logue lucky to stay in home state

Port win on horror night for Richmond

Port Adelaide picked up their first win of the NAB Challenge, but it was overshadowed by a horror night of injuries for Richmond.

At least one embarrassed senior Richmond player apologised to his Port Adelaide opponents during the game when the Tigers chose to play a lengthy period of the last quarter with just 15 players on the field while three fit senior players sat on the bench.

The Tigers chose to keep the players off the ground in the NAB practice match due to a "perfect storm" of four injuries wiping out their bench, coach Damien Hardwick said, and he was reluctant to risk further injuries to key players.

Hamstrung: Reece Conca was one of the Tigers hurt on Thursday. Photo: Getty Images

The decision to play with 15 men prompted AFL football operations manager Mark Evans, who was watching from the stands, to walk down to the bench and instruct the Tigers to get players onto the ground.

Richmond assistant coach Mark Williams, a former Port Adelaide premiership coach, had called out to angry Port officials who were frustrated at the Tigers' decision to play three short, that they, too, should take three players off and even up the on-field numbers if they wanted a better contest.

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The Tigers then suggested the game be abandoned, a proposal that Evans dismissed.

The AFL is unlikely to take the matter further but Port were privately extremely angry with the Tigers as the team had targeted this final match for their major pre-season hit-out of the pre-season.

"If a team genuinely could not field the required number of players because of genuine injuries, the rules cater for that," Mark Evans said.

"It doesn't cater for players to be sat on the bench … just because that's the way you want to manage the players."

Richardson said he understood concerns over the final quarter but said the club could not have anticipated four injuries in the match and thus had to safeguard its remaining key players in a pre-season match.

Richardson said he understood the decision was not a good look but the club's focus had to be round one.

"We were not trying to make a mockery of the competition or the NAB Challenge but our primary concern is round one [of the home and away] and having our strongest team fit for that," Richardson said.

Richmond eventually put the three bench players – captain Trent Cotchin and key players Alex Rance and Dustin Martin – back on the ground.

Several other clubs on Friday privately sympathised with Richmond and said while they probably would have sent their important players to rest in the goal square, they might also have done as Hardwick did and taken them off in the circumstances.

Richmond had suffered what appeared to be awful injuries to four players in the match, but on Friday it emerged they were only awfully timed injuries.

The seemingly worst injury was to important pacy midfielder Shane Edwards, who injured a collarbone and left the ground with his arm in a sling. Examination and a scan on Friday revealed no crack to the bone and only bruising. Richardson said he was still likely for round one.

Not so Shaun Grigg, who fractured his thumb and had a pin inserted Friday morning. He is expected to miss the first three to four weeks of the season.

Reece Conca, who has had a series of hamstring strains over the past 12 months, injured another hamstring in the game – but this time on the opposite leg to the one that has caused him trouble. The Tigers said he would be sidelined for eight weeks.

Jacob Townsend suffered concussion but is expected to be available for the first game against Carlton on March 24.

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